Indianapolis Friday Notebook

Photo: Sam Cobb/BMW

***IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship cars took part in an opening 90-minute practice session on Friday afternoon ahead of Sunday’s TireRack Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Kevin Estre, who is on a two-race probation by the sanctioning body, topped the overall time sheets in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 that he’s sharing with GTP title contender Laurin Heinrich this weekend.

***Estre, who is making his debut at The Brickyard, said: “It was cool to finally hit the track after so many simulator laps the last days. I felt quite comfortable straight away. The car was in a decent window, so everything is okay so far. It’s been a very long time since we’ve been in front, even in practice.”

***Nicky Catsburg, who set the quickest time in GTD Pro in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in Friday’s opening practice, said it’s been a “positive start” for he and co-driver Tommy Milner, who are amid an ultra-tight battle for the GTD Pro championship, which sees the top five crews separated by just 67 points entering the weekend.

***Catsburg said: “In the end you always try to go as fast as you can. It’s always nice to start the weekend up front. Let’s see if we can do the same thing tomorrow. But this is a positive start. Every race so far, we’ve been rolling out of the truck in a really good window. It seems like the car works well here. Let’s see. I feel like everyone else might be focusing more on other stuff. But to be honest, I feel like we’re quick.”

***DragonSpeed’s Corvette was the only car not to set any laps during the session, with gearbox issues hitting the GTD class entry. The team spent the session working to replace the unit ahead of Practice 2 on Saturday morning.

***In addition to the special ‘Thank You’ livery on the No. 93 Acura ARX-06, Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 60 entry of Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun are also in different colors this weekend, showcasing Milton Todd Ault III’s OnlyBulls brand, a mobile-only, AI-powered digital wealth and portfolio management platform.

***Sunday’s race marks the final scheduled outing for Robert Wickens in DXDT Racing’s Corvette, with the Indianapolis-based Canadian having only been signed up for the WeatherTech Championship sprint rounds.

***September is Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month, a cause for which Wickens is an active advocate and public speaker. “My journey has shown me how important mobility and independence are, and I want to use the platform I have to help create progress for the adaptive community,” he said. “Racing has always been about pushing limits, and now I have the opportunity to help push those limits beyond the racetrack as well.”

***Heart of Racing Team and Aston Martin continued its testing and development program for likely Evo joker updates with its Valkyrie earlier this week at Motorland Aragon, with Harry Tincknell, Ross Gunn and Marco Sorensen handling driving duties of the V12-powered car. All three arriving at The Brickyard on Thuraday to compete in their respective entries.

***It comes following a single day test for the Valkyrie at Circuit of The Americas, following the FIA World Endurance Championship Lone Star Le Mans event earlier this month.

***BMW has continued to investigate the possibility of utilizing a potential Evo joker for its M Hybrid V8 according to its motorsport boss Andreas Roos, who said if they will take one, it would be a “small” update compared to the car’s facelift for this year. The Dallara-chassied LMDh-based prototype has two remaining out of the initial five that expire in 2027.

***Roos told Sportscar365: “If we take a joker for next year or maybe the year after, we are still investigating and seeing how it could look like. We made a big change for this year. For sure we will not make a big change like we did for this year, also for next year. This is why we’re investigating now what we want to do and what we can do and if there’s a joker, yes or no.”

***The BMW M3 Touring 24H, which gained worldwide attention after its fourth place overall finish in the Nürburgring 24, could return to competition according to Roos, who hasn’t ruled out a future appearance in a race that would accept the eye-catching non-homologated GT3-based wagon.

***IMSA President John Doonan previously told Sportscar365 that he’d be open to a possible Garage 56-style entry in the Rolex 24 at Daytona as long as it’s something “unique” and fits within the current performance windows.

***Roos told Sportscar365: “For sure, the whole story around the Touring got bigger and it was a much greater and bigger project of what we all expected. We for sure have to re-think [the possibilities]. But I can’t tell you right now that maybe the car is racing [again], yes or no. There’s still a lot of things to clarify. The chance is for sure there but there is no decision taken on our side yet on what we do with the car in the future.”

***Frederik Schandorff said the recent highly publicized accident in the China GT Championship in Shanghai involving his Michelin Endurance Cup co-driver Ollie Millroy was “super scary” given the dramatic outcome that saw Loek Hartog heroically pull Millroy from his burning Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.

***Millory sustained multiple injuries including six broken ribs, a broken collarbone and a puncture lung and remains in a Shanghai hospital, two weeks after the accident. “For sure, I really hope that Ollie is going to recover super well,” said Schandorff. “He’s in good progress, but it’s going to take some time. He’s not able to fly the next three weeks, probably because of his lung still. So, I wish him a speedy recovery.”

***Schandorff, meanwhile, hopes the incident, which made national and international mainstream television coverage, will lead to improvements in trackside medical and safety team response time in series where it currently lacks.

***He said: “After this, you really appreciate the whole AMR [safety] team with IMSA. You know how good and how quick their response is; it’s something that probably personally I haven’t really thought about myself that much, but for sure after what happened, you really appreciate the whole crew behind that, and also that they’re so professional about what they’re doing, and they are there so quick. That definitely makes me more relaxed going into another race weekend, seeing what happened with Ollie.”

***Inception Racing confirmed on Friday that Fran Rueda will sub for Millroy for Motul Petit Le Mans.

***Newly crowned Indy NXT champion Nikita Johnson, who is closing out his first season of sports car racing in the No. 59 Team RLL McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, revealed that he’s close to securing a full time NTT IndyCar Series seat next year, which Sportscar365 understands has been aided by IndyCar’s new driver licensing criteria that’s already created a shuffle among drivers. “We’re working on it,” Johnson told reporters. “It could be a week, it could be three months.”

***YRB Racing, the entrants of the No. 68 Car Blanche Aston Martin Vantage GT3 will have a “very exciting” driver addition for Motul Petit Le Mans according to Valentin Hasse-Clot, who will again share driving duties with fellow Aston Martin factory driver Sorensen in the ten-hour enduro at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in the GTD Pro class. Team principal Christopher Deely said to expect an announcement on Monday.

***Sportscar365 understands that a current GTD team is set to move into GTD Pro for Petit Le Mans, in a lineup boasting a high-profile driver that’s been largely absent from the WeatherTech Championship grid this year.

***Magnus Racing, which made one-off starts in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, is understood to be returning for Petit Le Mans with its Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, with the team having recently tested at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with Mario Farnbacher among the drivers.

***WeatherTech Championship competitors will have one final 90-minute practice on Saturday morning prior to qualifying at 5:05 p.m. EST, which will be streamed live on Peacock as well as on IMSA’s YouTube channel. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120 Michelin Pilot Challenge race gets underway at 2:30 p.m. EST on the same channels, commercial-free, courtesy of Michelin, while Porsche Carrera Cup North America (12:35 p.m.) and Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America (6:45 p.m.) have its first races of the weekend, which will also be streamed live.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John